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About Disciplines

The Upper Room Disciplines provides an opportunity to look more deeply at scripture by offering a week of devotions by a single author on a particular theme.

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Latest Disciplines Devotions

Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - June 1, 2024

June 1, 2024

As a former English teacher, I occasionally diagram Paul’s sentences just to see how he does it. Nobody but Paul subordinates clauses within clauses like that and consistently hooks readers for...

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Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - May 31, 2024

May 31, 2024

Holy humility is what the Pharisees lack as they try to trip up Jesus with their questions about the sabbath. When they harangue him about harvesting and healing on the day...

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Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - May 30, 2024

May 30, 2024

Every night, millions of us can’t sleep. Stressed, unsettled, excited, wired, texted, and blue-screened beyond our limits, we might lie awake for hours. If this isn’t you, be grateful. But the...

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Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - May 29, 2024

May 29, 2024

Perhaps this passage is not only about Jesus’ ongoing tension with the Pharisees and their recrimination for disregarding proper sabbath protocol, but also an invitation to consider ways that our clay-jar...

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Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - May 28, 2024

May 28, 2024

I always read this story with compassion for the man with the withered hand. Not only because he has been incapacitated for some time, but because he was just minding his...

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Paradoxes of Embodied Faith - May 27, 2024

May 27, 2024

How easy it is to focus on the “fearful” aspects of our incarnation. True, the word originally meant “awesome” but to contemporary ears, the word fearful casts an anxious light. Accidents...

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God Loves So That - May 26, 2024

May 26, 2024

These verses are some of the most beloved in the Bible. Many of us know them by heart. Yet we can always find more to unpack. Scholars suggest that when the...

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God Loves So That - May 25, 2024

May 25, 2024

John tells us that Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, secretly sought out Jesus at night so that he would not be seen. However, subsequently in John’s Gospel, we glimpse “the...

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God Loves So That - May 24, 2024

May 24, 2024

As long as I can remember, a large oil painting hung over the sofa in my parents’ living room. For some reason, I loved that picture. So when my father died,...

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God Loves So That - May 23, 2024

May 23, 2024

They will know we are Christians by our love.” Christians should be known by how we put our love into action. God loves us so that we can love ourselves, others,...

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